Published: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 11:38 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 11:38 a.m.

Michelle Frazier was shopping at Mayfaire Town Center with her daughter last Tuesday when she heard that a scissor-tailed flycatcher - a non-native bird with a spot on her bird-watching bucket list - had landed at Fort Fisher.

Facts

Color: Pale gray head and back, white belly, colorful flanks.Defining feature: Extra-long tail feather.Length: Between 10 and 14 inches, including tail feather.Breeding range: From the southern tip of Texas to the northern border of Kansas, usually not farther east than Louisiana and Arkansas.Migration: From southern Texas to southern Central America.Diet: Mainly insects (grasshoppers and dragonflies). Will also eat berries in winter.Source: All About Birds

"We were at Fresh Market so we were like, OK, abandon the cart! We rushed down there," said Frazier, who volunteers with Cape Fear Audubon. "We zoomed through town to get there. I was flipping out over every red light."

Frazier made it to Fort Fisher in time to meet a horde of birders, all with zoom lenses and binoculars trained on the gray-and-yellow bird perched nonchalantly on a stretch of barbed wire. A week later, the bird remains in the area, delighting bird enthusiasts who never thought they'd have the opportunity to see a scissor-tailed flycatcher anywhere close to Southeastern North Carolina.

"It's the most out-of-place bird that I've ever seen. He's really far from home," Frazier said. "I figured I'd have to do a lot of traveling to see one."

The scissor-tailed flycatcher lives primarily in the southwestern United States, from the southern tip of Texas to the northern border of Kansas. Typically, the bird strays no farther east than Louisiana and Arkansas, infrequently crossing the western border of North Carolina during "irregular breeding," according to National Geographic.

Still, the flycatcher has made an appearance in the Cape Fear region at least once before. Birders were alerted to its presence this time via an email blast from the Cape Fear Bird Club, according to Nancy Buckingham, a volunteer with Cape Fear Audubon.

"I saw the alert that it was there, and I rushed down to the Fort Fisher ferry terminal, because I wanted to make sure there were people still there looking at it so it would be easy for me to find," she said. "The species has been here in the past, but it's quite rare that it would be here."

At first, birders thought the male bird was a juvenile - the flycatcher is missing his extra-long tail feathers, the hallmark of the breed - but after observing his behavior, Frazier said, it's clear that he's more mature.

"He's very aware. When there was a hawk overhead, he went into hiding. He was aware of predators, and young birds wouldn't act that way," Frazier said. "It's not a young bird - he's just lost his long tail feathers in the molting process."

Birders are unsure why the flycatcher flew here or why he's stayed for so long. In the past, "vagrant" birds have detoured to the North Carolina coast after being pushed off their migratory paths by severe weather, but that seems unlikely in this case.

"We live along a common route that birds take when they migrate, so you never know what you're going to get," Frazier said. "It tends to be a popular stop-over spot before they head out over the water. For people who are interested in this kind of thing, that's the place to be and this is the time of year to be there."